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Massive congratulations to Dr Kathy Ruddy from TCD on winning the NSI Early Career Investigator Award. Kathy will now deliver a Prize Lecture at the British Neuroscience Association’s “Festival of Neuroscience” (BNA2019) in the Convention Centre Dublin in April 2019, where she will be presented with her award (an engraved medal and a cheque for €500).

Originally from Northern Ireland, Kathy completed a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast under the supervision of Prof. Richard Carson, awarded in 2014. She went on to undertake a post-doctoral research position at ETH in Zürich, Switzerland, for three years under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Wenderoth. To date she has published 8 full peer reviewed original research manuscripts and two invited review articles as lead author (one was named ‘Publication of the year 2017’ by the Swiss Society for Neuroscience), and a further 2 peer reviewed original research manuscripts as co-author, plus one book chapter. In 2017 Kathy was awarded a two-year fellowship from the Irish Research Council to conduct a project at Trinity College Dublin on how Brain-Computer Interface can be used to improve aspects of the brain’s inhibitory control systems, under the supervision of Prof. Robert Whelan.

Congratulations again to all of our shortlisted candidates pictured here at yesterday’s Young NSI Conference (read more about them here).

We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Dr Will Devane in Galway. Will made an extraordinary contribution to cannabis research – he discovered the CB1 receptor as a PhD student and he discovered and named anandamide as a post-doc. For the past 10 years he has lived in Galway and spent time as a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the laboratory of Prof David Finn.

We had a huge response to our call for nominations for the NSI Early Career Investigator Award and were overwhelmed by the number of outstanding candidates identified. So thank you so much to all for submitting your nominations.

The NSI Early Career Award will be presented to one of these nine outstanding research scientists. The award recipient will be announced at the Young Neuroscience Ireland Conference in UCD on 25th October. S/he will receive an engraved medal, a cheque for €500 and will be invited to present a Prize Lecture at the British Neuroscience Association’s “Festival of Neuroscience” (BNA2019) in the Convention Centre Dublin in April 2019.

NSI is also still seeking nominations (including self-nominations) for the NSI “Early Career Investigator Award”. If you have suggestions for nominations, please send them to neuroscienceireland@gmail.com by 5pm on Friday 14th September.

Neuroscience Ireland are delighted to announced that the recipient of the 2019 Neuroscience Ireland “Tom Connor Distinguished Investigator Award” will be Prof Ray Dolan from University College London. This award, named for our colleague and former President who passed away at a young age in 2013, is awarded to Irish neuroscientists who have made an outstanding international contribution to neuroscience research.

Prof Dolan was born in Galway, Ireland and completed his medical degree at University College Galway (now National University of Ireland, Galway). He went on to pursue a career as a neuropsychiatrist in London where he established himself as one of the world’s top international neuroscientists. Ray is currently Mary Kinross Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London. His research addresses the neurobiology of emotion and decision making, how emotion impacts on cognition and its aberrant expression in disease. He has published over 500 peer reviewed papers and is among the world’s most influential and highly cited neuroscientists. Ray is a Fellow of both the Royal Society in the UK and the Royal Irish Academy, and was joint winner of the Brain Prize in 2017.

Ray will be presented with his award at the BNA’s “Festival of Neuroscience” in Dublin in April 2019, where he will also give the opening Plenary Lecture in advance of the welcome reception.

Neuroscience Ireland is now seeking nominations (including self-nominations) for their “Early Career Investigator Award”.

This prestigious award is presented to an outstanding research scientist who has made exciting basic science or clinical contributions to the field of Neuroscience. The award recipient will be announced at the Young Neuroscience Ireland Conference in UCD on 25th October. S/he will receive an engraved medal, a cheque for €500 and will be invited to present a Prize Lecture at the British Neuroscience Association’s “Festival of Neuroscience” (BNA2019) in the Convention Centre Dublin in April 2019. Nominees must be members of the Society, be within 8 years of receiving their terminal degree (PhD or MD), and not yet in an academic position.

If you have suggestions for nominations, please send them to myself or to neuroscienceireland@gmail.com by Friday 14th September. Suitable candidates will then be invited to submit a brief CV and a cover letter detailing their contribution to neuroscience before Friday 28th September.